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THE NEW YORKER, JUNE 9 & 16, 2014
New York City Ballet
George Balanchine's "A Midsummer
Night's Dream" (1962), the perfect
prologue to summer, returns in the
company's inal week at Lincoln Cen-
ter. What makes this---Balanchine's
irst wholly original story ballet, set
to Mendelssohn's witty score---such
a delight? Could it be the swarms o
children from the company school
swirling across the stage as gossamer-
winged ire lies, or the quicksilver
scherzo for Oberon, king o the fairies,
in which his feet seem to barely touch
the ground? (This solo was created
for Edward Villella, who had two o
the fastest feet around.) Then, there
is the ballet's tight construction,
with its compressed irst act, which
leaves room in the second hal for a
series o divertissements, including
one o Balanchine's most limpid pas
de deux. (David H. Koch, Lincoln
Center. 212-496-0600. June 4-5 at
7:30,June6at8,June7at2and8,
and June 8 at 3.)
American Ballet Theatre
This season, the company replaces
its intermittently compelling produc-
tion o "Cinderella" with Frederick
Ashton's gem, created in 1948 for the
Royal Ballet. Ashton responded to
Proko iev's sweeping and occasionally
prickly score by creating a ballet that
is both riotously funny---the ugly
stepsisters are played, pantomime
style, by men---and an example o the
highest classical re inement. Some o
the ballet's most striking moments
are the simplest, as when the heroine
enters the ballroom, slowly loating
down a long staircase on pointe.
Ashton's "Cinderella" receives its
company première on June 9, with
the delicate Hee Seo in the role o
Cinderella and the tall, elegant Cory
Stearns as her prince. Another prom-
ising cast pairs Gillian Murphy---a
particularly lush dancer---with the
even more princely David Hallberg.
Before that, the company presents
eight performances o Kenneth Mac-
Millan's "Manon," a real bodice-ripper,
set to a compilation o Massenet
orchestral music. • June 2-3 and June
5-6 at 7:30, June 4 at 2 and 7:30, and
June 7 at 2 and 8: "Manon." • June
9-10 and June 12-13 at 7:30, June 11
at2and7:30,andJune14at2and
8: "Cinderella." (Metropolitan Opera
House, Lincoln Center. 212-362-6000.
Through July 5.)
Ronald K. Brown/Evidence
As a choreographer, Brown has many
strengths---intensity within ease,
rhythmic persuasion---but structural
variety isn't one o them. So it's re-
grettable that the brilliant jazz pianist
Jason Moran, who composed music
for this première, o ered a suite,
Brown's go-to form. The subject o
"The Subtle One," the manifestation
o spiritual grace, is also well-trod
ground for him. But Brown's repeti-
tions outshine most choreographers'
novelties, especially when embodied
by his superb dancers, who are joined
by the Alvin Ailey superstar Matthew
Rushing in the second program.
(Joyce Theatre, 175 Eighth Ave., at
19th St. 212-242-0800. June 3-4 at
7:30,June5-6at8,June7at2and
8, and June 8 at 2 and 7:30.)
Platform 2014: "Diary of an
Image"
"Diary o an Image," the centerpiece
o Danspace Project's four-week focus
on DD Dorvillier, is a solo for the
choreographer. Or, at least, she's the
only person dancing in the work,
which was made in collaboration
with the composer Zeena Parkins,
the lighting designer Thomas Dunn,
and the set designer Olivier Vadrot.
Using borrowed heel-and-toe steps as
a kind o indecipherable Morse code,
Dorvillier works as much with sound
as with image. (St. Mark's Church
In-the-Bowery, Second Ave. at 10th
St. 866-811-4111. June 6-7 and June
12-14 at 8.)
ZviDance
The veteran choreographer Zvi Got-
heiner can make vigorous, charged
dances that get under your skin. But
he's also fond o the-way-we-live-now
gimmicks. In "Zoom," from 2010,
he invited the audience to e-mail
suggestions for choreography dur-
ing the show and to take pictures
with their phones. His new piece,
"Surveillance," features live video
o dancers and spectators, and Scott
Killian's sound design incorporates
recorded conversations between
audience members captured dur-
ing the show. Watch what you say.
(New York Live Arts, 219 W. 19th
St. 212-924-0077. June 11-13 at 7:30
and June 14 at 2 and 7:30.)
Cedar Lake Contemporary
Ballet
Founded ten years ago by a Walmart
heiress, the company is an indubi-
table success; each year, it presents
high-energy seasons o new works
by the hottest names in European
contemporary dance. Adjectives
like "full-throttle," "edgy," and "in-
defatigable" apply. (I some o the
repertory tends to blend together,
that says more about the state o
contemporary ballet than about the
company.) To mark its irst decade,
the troupe appears at BAM for the
irst time, with three programs o
recent hits. On Program A, "Orbo
Novo," by the Belgian choreogra-
pher Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, is an
evening-length exploration, through
dance and text, o Jill Bolte Taylor's
surprising account o her sensations
while su ering a stroke. Program
B is anchored by "Violet Kid," a
militaristic, dystopian take on group
dynamics, by the U.K.-based Israeli
choreographer Hofesh Shechter.
Perhaps the most interesting work o
the lot, Crystal Pite's "Grace Engine"
(on Program C), is constructed
as a series o enigmatic vignettes
that reveal the surreality buried
in everyday life. (BAM's Howard
Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette
Ave., Brooklyn. 718-636-4100. June
11-14 at 7:30.)
Ballet Tech / Kids Dance
Ballet Tech is an extraordinary in-
stitution: a free elementary school,
serving grades four through eight,
with a focus on academics and
dance. Admission to the academy,
which was founded more than three
decades ago by the choreographer
Eliot Feld, is based wholly on merit.
At the Joyce, these talented pupils
perform a mixed bill o three works
by Feld: his clever "Stair Dance,"
based on a series o minutely evolving
patterns; the hoedown-like "Apple
Pie," set to lively music by Bela
Fleck; and "KYDZNY," a new work
created especially for the occasion
to music by the Brooklyn-based
Raya Brass Band. Try to catch the
June 12 performance, when the
band plays live. (175 Eighth Ave.,
at 19th St. 212-242-0800. June 12
at8,June13at7,June14at2and
7, and June 15 at 2.)
Rioult
To celebrate his company's twen-
tieth anniversary, Pascal Rioult,
whose established choreographic
skills certainly include borrow-
ing, owns up to his in luences by
programming works by some o his
mentors. Thus, Martha Graham's
"El Penitente" (1940) and May
O'Donnell's "Suspension" (1943),
though they're in an antiquated style
that's di icult for contemporary
dancers to pull o , have a chance
to overshadow his bland "Views o
the Fleeting World" (2008). The
second program features a Rioult
première set to Tchaikovsky. (Joyce
Theatre, 175 Eighth Ave., at 19th
St. 212-242-0800. June 17 at 7:30.
Through June 22.)
D CE
of note Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre
For the second year in a row, the beloved troupe offers a short
spring season at Lincoln Center, where it projects marvellously
from the big stage. The première is "The Pleasure of the
Lesson," by Robert Moses, a San Francisco choreographer
whose ambitious ideas can escape his structural control. The
repertory pieces on three of the four programs (the fourth is
a dud) exhibit an impressive historical and stylistic range, from
the balletic futurism of Wayne McGregor's "Chroma" to "Awassa
Astrige," a 1932 curio for a man in ostrich feathers. A selection of
Ailey dances to Duke Ellington comes right in the middle. (David
H. Koch, Lincoln Center. 212-496-0600. June 11 at 7, June 12 and
June17at7:30,June13at8,June14at2and8,andJune15at3
and 7:30. Through June 22.)
GOINGS ON, ONLINE
See our Web site for details
about Bill Frisell, who is leading
an exploration of the electric
guitar in America, and an
appearance by the saxophone-
heavy Microscopic Septet.
FRONT ROW
Richard Brody surveys MOMA's
retrospective of films made by
the studio MK2 and its founder,
Marin Karmitz.